Unstable but inspired, the teenage trio spun shoegaze-infected psych rock by way of the Byrds and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

Just as they were finding their feet - their ComFest set this year was the sharpest I've seen them - singer-guitarist Vug Arakas decided to break up the band and try something new.

Enter Vug and the Stallions. Older, wiser and backed by a rotating cast that often includes members of the Main Street Gospel, Arakas rocks under his own name now.

It's a smart decision aesthetically; "Vug" is a much more memorable moniker than the borrowed Stooges song title that adorned his old band. More importantly, the switch seems to be panning out for Arakas artistically, too.

That much was clear last Thursday, when the Stallions opened the night at Rumba Cafe. With his brother on drums, the Main Street Gospel's Tito on bass and MSG's Barry Dean on lead guitar, Arakas led the group through a set that cashed in on much of the vast potential he's been showing off all these years.

The quartet covered a lot of ground in just six songs, shifting from slow-burning psych jams to twangy barroom laments to snappy retro pop. A rickety mansion's worth of ghosts haunted this music, from Crazy Horse to Deer Tick to the Lemonheads, but none were spooky enough to sway Vug's steady hand.

Barking out rough and tumble tales from behind flopping locks of hair, Arakas was an arresting figure at stage right. Across the floorboards, Dean employed the meat-and-potatoes guitar mastery he's perfected with the Main Street Gospel, an ingredient just as crucial to this band as his main meal ticket.

Dean's leads cut through each tune like a laser light show, sometimes blurring with Arakas' fret work into an eight-miles-high haze.

All this beauty seemed to flow out of their fingers effortlessly. The entire enterprise felt loose and natural - like your neighbors jamming in their basement, only awesome.

Arakas is heading to Akron in January to lay down the first Stallions record. He'd be smart to bring Dean along and capture some of that collaborative magic in the studio. But even without his trusty steeds, the young talent seems set to create something special up there.